Machary, an Irishman, was press-ganged onto a ship in Portugal and was
therefore present at the invasion of the Armada, on the Spanish side. Machary
was left behind on the coast of Ireland by the Spanish when they departed.
He would have been a very useful source of information for the Lord Deputy,
as he was able to provide information about the Spanish ships and in particular
about Don Alonso de Leva.

The document is mainly written in secretary hand. This style of writing
was used for business purposes, and was the main hand used in Britain in
the Tudor and Jacobean periods. The italic hand, which we saw in document
1 (the letter from Princess Elizabeth), existed alongside secretary hand,
and writers of secretary hand would sometimes write certain words in italic
hand to make them stand out. An example of this can be seen in this document,
which has the names of the Spaniards written in italic.